i think a good counter to this sort of argument is :

https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...

Wow! This has aged really, really badly. 50 years and many billions of dollars later and we're neither on the Moon or Mars or have significantly enhanced the distribution of food to those in need, let alone international cooperation.

Higher food production through survey and assessment from orbit, and better food distribution through improved international relations, are only two examples of how profoundly the space program will impact life on Earth.

As good counters go, this underperforms.

	▲	tim333 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I agree the space program was a bit of a flop but food distribution and poverty stuff has improved Extreme poverty from 45% to less than 10% https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty-in-brief Famine deaths about 1/3 https://ourworldindata.org/famines
	▲	JuniperMesos 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It didn't age badly at all. This prediction was dead-on accurate. The widespread use of satellite monitoring of the Earth's surface has paid huge dividends for humanity in all sorts of ways including better and cheaper food production. Also the GPS system alone has been hugely important for every human system that involves navigating from one place on the Earth to another, which of course includes food transport as well as many many other things relevant to people's lives and health.